Dual boot ME and XP with 4 hard drives (questions)

Hi:

I'm finally moving to XP after using 31, 95b, 98se and now ME
over the past 15 years.
I have 3 large hard drives (120, 120, and 200) and will be
getting another 120 early next week, for a total of 4 drives. . I
currently have ME on the 1st partition of my primary master drive.
(I'm using the Promise TX133 Ultra controller.)

I need to keep ME, but I also want to add XP, and will be using
a 3rd party boot manager, probably osl2000 or bootit ng.

When I add XP, I want to put it on an NTFS partition.

Here's my questions:

1. Should I have ME and XP on different partitions of the
__same__ hard drive, or should I put them on different hard drives?
I want to keep them both for now, and _maybe_ delete ME in a few
months, and just keep XP.
( I have no problem moving files around to clear room to
create/convert new partitions, if needed.)

2. If you have a dual-boot setup, or experience with one, what
would you recommend as far as the design layout? I can put 2 or 3
partitions on each drive.

3. I have several games that I would like to be able to play with
both ME and XP. Because ME is on FAT32 and XP will be on NTFS, I
realize that I will need to have 2 installs for each game that I want
to run on both.

4. Could you please recommend/suggest some good layouts, and
possibly any layouts to avoid?


Primary Master
part 1 (currently ME on fat32)
part 2 (currently storage on fat 32)


Primary Slave
part 1 (currently game files for ME, on fat 32)
part 2 (currently storage on fat 32)


Secondary Master
part 1 (currently storage on fat 32)
part 2 " " "



(When I get my fourth drive, I can rearrage any drives as necessary
as far as master/slave and primary/secondary and fat32/ntfs.)

I realize that NTFS can see fat32, but fat32 cannot see ntfs.



Sorry if these are stupid newbie questions. I've dual-booted dos &
win9x in the past, but these were always fat16 & fat 32 setups, and
were easier for me to figure out. I really want the stability of
NTFS (for XP), but it really complicates things in my head.

(I have Partition Magic 8.0 to do the partitioning.)

Finally, let me say that I have a couple games that I'm told will
NOT run on XP, so I need to keep ME for now. I've seen some posts
where people recommend deleting all 9x/ME installs and going with
just a single clean XP install. I will delete ME later __if__ I
can get these games to work with XP, but for now I really need both.

Also, I do NOT want to use XP's built-in boot manager. I've
seen it on a friend's system, and I don't like it. I have System
Commander, and just got copies of Bootit and osl2000.


Many thanks for your time, help, and suggestions.

abc

I would suggest putting ME and XP on seperate hard drives since you have so
many. Have Partion Magic keep the two hard drives hidden so that XP will
not be tempted to borrow anything or overwrite anything in ME. Also, why
not dual boot 98SE and XP since the vast majority of people like 98SE better
and 98SE is much easier to access MS-DOS. All you need to do in 98SE is
shutdown and restart in DOS as opposed to using a boot disk for ME which imo
gets really tiring and annoying after a while. Also, I have read that ME
tends to crash more often than 98SE. However, you may be pressed for funds
and do not want to go to the expense of acquiring another operating system
and so I understand. I am actually working on upgrading my computer and
will have a dual-boot of 98SE and XP Pro on two hard drives. 98SE will be
on my 40 gigabyte hard drive while XP Professional will be on my 80 gigabyte
hard drive. Finally, I was wondering what you did not like about the
generic boot loader that Microsoft provides? Does it give you too few
features or does it cause problems between 98SE and XP? Thanks for your
help and I hope I was able to help you some. Have an awesome night. :

wrote in message
...
Hi:

I'm finally moving to XP after using 31, 95b, 98se and now ME
over the past 15 years.
I have 3 large hard drives (120, 120, and 200) and will be
getting another 120 early next week, for a total of 4 drives. . I
currently have ME on the 1st partition of my primary master drive.
(I'm using the Promise TX133 Ultra controller.)

I need to keep ME, but I also want to add XP, and will be using
a 3rd party boot manager, probably osl2000 or bootit ng.

When I add XP, I want to put it on an NTFS partition.

Here's my questions:

1. Should I have ME and XP on different partitions of the
__same__ hard drive, or should I put them on different hard drives?
I want to keep them both for now, and _maybe_ delete ME in a few
months, and just keep XP.
( I have no problem moving files around to clear room to
create/convert new partitions, if needed.)

2. If you have a dual-boot setup, or experience with one, what
would you recommend as far as the design layout? I can put 2 or 3
partitions on each drive.

3. I have several games that I would like to be able to play with
both ME and XP. Because ME is on FAT32 and XP will be on NTFS, I
realize that I will need to have 2 installs for each game that I want
to run on both.

4. Could you please recommend/suggest some good layouts, and
possibly any layouts to avoid?


Primary Master
part 1 (currently ME on fat32)
part 2 (currently storage on fat 32)


Primary Slave
part 1 (currently game files for ME, on fat 32)
part 2 (currently storage on fat 32)


Secondary Master
part 1 (currently storage on fat 32)
part 2 " " "



(When I get my fourth drive, I can rearrage any drives as necessary
as far as master/slave and primary/secondary and fat32/ntfs.)

I realize that NTFS can see fat32, but fat32 cannot see ntfs.



Sorry if these are stupid newbie questions. I've dual-booted dos &
win9x in the past, but these were always fat16 & fat 32 setups, and
were easier for me to figure out. I really want the stability of
NTFS (for XP), but it really complicates things in my head.

(I have Partition Magic 8.0 to do the partitioning.)

Finally, let me say that I have a couple games that I'm told will
NOT run on XP, so I need to keep ME for now. I've seen some posts
where people recommend deleting all 9x/ME installs and going with
just a single clean XP install. I will delete ME later __if__ I
can get these games to work with XP, but for now I really need both.

Also, I do NOT want to use XP's built-in boot manager. I've
seen it on a friend's system, and I don't like it. I have System
Commander, and just got copies of Bootit and osl2000.


Many thanks for your time, help, and suggestions.

abc

wrote in message
...
Hi:

I'm finally moving to XP after using 31, 95b, 98se and now ME
over the past 15 years.
I have 3 large hard drives (120, 120, and 200) and will be
getting another 120 early next week, for a total of 4 drives. . I
currently have ME on the 1st partition of my primary master drive.
(I'm using the Promise TX133 Ultra controller.)

I need to keep ME, but I also want to add XP, and will be using
a 3rd party boot manager, probably osl2000 or bootit ng.

When I add XP, I want to put it on an NTFS partition.

Here's my questions:

1. Should I have ME and XP on different partitions of the
__same__ hard drive, or should I put them on different hard drives?
I want to keep them both for now, and _maybe_ delete ME in a few
months, and just keep XP.
( I have no problem moving files around to clear room to
create/convert new partitions, if needed.)


Hide the ME partition during the XP install. Same HD, different partition
for XP. Yes use XP's version of NTFS.

2. If you have a dual-boot setup, or experience with one, what
would you recommend as far as the design layout? I can put 2 or 3
partitions on each drive.

Up to 4 primary partitions are allowed per HD. An extended partition counts
as a primary partition in this context. I don't recommend primary
partitions unless booting from them, an extended partition cannot be booted
from by any MS OS.


3. I have several games that I would like to be able to play with
both ME and XP. Because ME is on FAT32 and XP will be on NTFS, I
realize that I will need to have 2 installs for each game that I want
to run on both.

Use a common FAT32 partition to save your games, if that option is available
for the game.


4. Could you please recommend/suggest some good layouts, and
possibly any layouts to avoid?


Primary Master
part 1 (currently ME on fat32)
part 2 (currently storage on fat 32)


Primary Slave
part 1 (currently game files for ME, on fat 32)
part 2 (currently storage on fat 32)


Secondary Master
part 1 (currently storage on fat 32)
part 2 " " "



(When I get my fourth drive, I can rearrage any drives as necessary
as far as master/slave and primary/secondary and fat32/ntfs.)


Partition layouts and filesystems used are a function of the user's habits.
Each has his/her own.
Don't see how you're utilizing all this space. Irregardless, get an imaging
software program to save at least your OS partition information to the 3rd
or 4th drive. DriveImage 7 / 2002 from Symantec, or TrueImage from Acronis
will work on XP and WinME.

I realize that NTFS can see fat32, but fat32 cannot see ntfs.


Not exactly. XP can identify and use NTFS, FAT32, and FAT16 partitions and
filesystems. 98/98SE/ME can identify and use FAT32 and FAT16 partitions and
filesystems.
NT 4.0 can use and identify its own version of NTFS and FAT16 only. There
are currently 3 different versions of NTFS.
The point being is the operating system, not the filesystem, identifies and
makes use of NTFS, FAT32 etc.


Sorry if these are stupid newbie questions. I've dual-booted dos &
win9x in the past, but these were always fat16 & fat 32 setups, and
were easier for me to figure out. I really want the stability of
NTFS (for XP), but it really complicates things in my head.


Check the MS site to see if your PC meets both your hardware and software
application needs when using XP.

(I have Partition Magic 8.0 to do the partitioning.)


Let the XP boot/install CD do the XP partition and format. Just provide the
empty space on the HD. That means no partition in place, must be empty
where you want it.

Finally, let me say that I have a couple games that I'm told will
NOT run on XP, so I need to keep ME for now. I've seen some posts
where people recommend deleting all 9x/ME installs and going with
just a single clean XP install. I will delete ME later __if__ I
can get these games to work with XP, but for now I really need both.


If doing a genuine dual-boot off different partitions, that may not be
needed.

Also, I do NOT want to use XP's built-in boot manager. I've
seen it on a friend's system, and I don't like it. I have System
Commander, and just got copies of Bootit and osl2000.


The current version of System Commander does work with XP. You can use this
as an OS preparation tool as it was designed for.


Many thanks for your time, help, and suggestions.

abc

MS does not use a genuine bootloader. Rather, a boot file selection group,
onboard one OS partition. The access loss of this partition or its bogus
bootloader, for whatever the reason, will render both OSes inaccessible.

Saw no hint of the user wanting to use real msdos mode. I've read many
negative things about ME's operability, many fostered by MS MVPs in the
past, all of which are untrue based my own experiences.
"ArtWilder" wrote in message
...
I would suggest putting ME and XP on seperate hard drives since you have
so
many. Have Partion Magic keep the two hard drives hidden so that XP will
not be tempted to borrow anything or overwrite anything in ME. Also, why
not dual boot 98SE and XP since the vast majority of people like 98SE
better
and 98SE is much easier to access MS-DOS. All you need to do in 98SE is
shutdown and restart in DOS as opposed to using a boot disk for ME which
imo
gets really tiring and annoying after a while. Also, I have read that ME
tends to crash more often than 98SE. However, you may be pressed for
funds
and do not want to go to the expense of acquiring another operating system
and so I understand. I am actually working on upgrading my computer and
will have a dual-boot of 98SE and XP Pro on two hard drives. 98SE will be
on my 40 gigabyte hard drive while XP Professional will be on my 80
gigabyte
hard drive. Finally, I was wondering what you did not like about the
generic boot loader that Microsoft provides? Does it give you too few
features or does it cause problems between 98SE and XP? Thanks for your
help and I hope I was able to help you some. Have an awesome night. :

wrote in message
...
Hi:

I'm finally moving to XP after using 31, 95b, 98se and now ME
over the past 15 years.
I have 3 large hard drives (120, 120, and 200) and will be
getting another 120 early next week, for a total of 4 drives. . I
currently have ME on the 1st partition of my primary master drive.
(I'm using the Promise TX133 Ultra controller.)

I need to keep ME, but I also want to add XP, and will be using
a 3rd party boot manager, probably osl2000 or bootit ng.

When I add XP, I want to put it on an NTFS partition.

Here's my questions:

1. Should I have ME and XP on different partitions of the
__same__ hard drive, or should I put them on different hard drives?
I want to keep them both for now, and _maybe_ delete ME in a few
months, and just keep XP.
( I have no problem moving files around to clear room to
create/convert new partitions, if needed.)

2. If you have a dual-boot setup, or experience with one, what
would you recommend as far as the design layout? I can put 2 or 3
partitions on each drive.

3. I have several games that I would like to be able to play with
both ME and XP. Because ME is on FAT32 and XP will be on NTFS, I
realize that I will need to have 2 installs for each game that I want
to run on both.

4. Could you please recommend/suggest some good layouts, and
possibly any layouts to avoid?


Primary Master
part 1 (currently ME on fat32)
part 2 (currently storage on fat 32)


Primary Slave
part 1 (currently game files for ME, on fat 32)
part 2 (currently storage on fat 32)


Secondary Master
part 1 (currently storage on fat 32)
part 2 " " "



(When I get my fourth drive, I can rearrage any drives as necessary
as far as master/slave and primary/secondary and fat32/ntfs.)

I realize that NTFS can see fat32, but fat32 cannot see ntfs.



Sorry if these are stupid newbie questions. I've dual-booted dos &
win9x in the past, but these were always fat16 & fat 32 setups, and
were easier for me to figure out. I really want the stability of
NTFS (for XP), but it really complicates things in my head.

(I have Partition Magic 8.0 to do the partitioning.)

Finally, let me say that I have a couple games that I'm told will
NOT run on XP, so I need to keep ME for now. I've seen some posts
where people recommend deleting all 9x/ME installs and going with
just a single clean XP install. I will delete ME later __if__ I
can get these games to work with XP, but for now I really need both.

Also, I do NOT want to use XP's built-in boot manager. I've
seen it on a friend's system, and I don't like it. I have System
Commander, and just got copies of Bootit and osl2000.


Many thanks for your time, help, and suggestions.

abc

For a dual-boot computer of 98SE and XP Pro. on two different hard drives,
which 3rd party program do you suggest or is it best to leave it up to
Microsoft's own utilities. Thanks in advance for your help and I appologize
if I am taking away from the original poster's topic but you seem to have
some good advice and know what you are talking about. :

"Lil' Dave" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
...
Hi:

I'm finally moving to XP after using 31, 95b, 98se and now ME
over the past 15 years.
I have 3 large hard drives (120, 120, and 200) and will be
getting another 120 early next week, for a total of 4 drives. . I
currently have ME on the 1st partition of my primary master drive.
(I'm using the Promise TX133 Ultra controller.)

I need to keep ME, but I also want to add XP, and will be using
a 3rd party boot manager, probably osl2000 or bootit ng.

When I add XP, I want to put it on an NTFS partition.

Here's my questions:

1. Should I have ME and XP on different partitions of the
__same__ hard drive, or should I put them on different hard drives?
I want to keep them both for now, and _maybe_ delete ME in a few
months, and just keep XP.
( I have no problem moving files around to clear room to
create/convert new partitions, if needed.)


Hide the ME partition during the XP install. Same HD, different partition
for XP. Yes use XP's version of NTFS.

2. If you have a dual-boot setup, or experience with one, what
would you recommend as far as the design layout? I can put 2 or 3
partitions on each drive.

Up to 4 primary partitions are allowed per HD. An extended partition
counts
as a primary partition in this context. I don't recommend primary
partitions unless booting from them, an extended partition cannot be
booted
from by any MS OS.


3. I have several games that I would like to be able to play with
both ME and XP. Because ME is on FAT32 and XP will be on NTFS, I
realize that I will need to have 2 installs for each game that I want
to run on both.

Use a common FAT32 partition to save your games, if that option is
available
for the game.


4. Could you please recommend/suggest some good layouts, and
possibly any layouts to avoid?


Primary Master
part 1 (currently ME on fat32)
part 2 (currently storage on fat 32)


Primary Slave
part 1 (currently game files for ME, on fat 32)
part 2 (currently storage on fat 32)


Secondary Master
part 1 (currently storage on fat 32)
part 2 " " "



(When I get my fourth drive, I can rearrage any drives as necessary
as far as master/slave and primary/secondary and fat32/ntfs.)


Partition layouts and filesystems used are a function of the user's
habits.
Each has his/her own.
Don't see how you're utilizing all this space. Irregardless, get an
imaging
software program to save at least your OS partition information to the 3rd
or 4th drive. DriveImage 7 / 2002 from Symantec, or TrueImage from
Acronis
will work on XP and WinME.

I realize that NTFS can see fat32, but fat32 cannot see ntfs.


Not exactly. XP can identify and use NTFS, FAT32, and FAT16 partitions
and
filesystems. 98/98SE/ME can identify and use FAT32 and FAT16 partitions
and
filesystems.
NT 4.0 can use and identify its own version of NTFS and FAT16 only. There
are currently 3 different versions of NTFS.
The point being is the operating system, not the filesystem, identifies
and
makes use of NTFS, FAT32 etc.


Sorry if these are stupid newbie questions. I've dual-booted dos &
win9x in the past, but these were always fat16 & fat 32 setups, and
were easier for me to figure out. I really want the stability of
NTFS (for XP), but it really complicates things in my head.


Check the MS site to see if your PC meets both your hardware and software
application needs when using XP.

(I have Partition Magic 8.0 to do the partitioning.)


Let the XP boot/install CD do the XP partition and format. Just provide
the
empty space on the HD. That means no partition in place, must be empty
where you want it.

Finally, let me say that I have a couple games that I'm told will
NOT run on XP, so I need to keep ME for now. I've seen some posts
where people recommend deleting all 9x/ME installs and going with
just a single clean XP install. I will delete ME later __if__ I
can get these games to work with XP, but for now I really need both.


If doing a genuine dual-boot off different partitions, that may not be
needed.

Also, I do NOT want to use XP's built-in boot manager. I've
seen it on a friend's system, and I don't like it. I have System
Commander, and just got copies of Bootit and osl2000.


The current version of System Commander does work with XP. You can use
this
as an OS preparation tool as it was designed for.


Many thanks for your time, help, and suggestions.

abc

"Lil' Dave" wrote:
...(snipped)...
Up to 4 primary partitions are allowed per HD. An extended partition
counts as a primary partition in this context. I don't recommend
primary partitions unless booting from them, an extended partition
cannot be booted from by any MS OS.

...(snipped)...

Let the XP boot/install CD do the XP partition and format. Just
provide the empty space on the HD. That means no partition in
place, must be empty where you want it.

"ArtWilder" wrote:
For a dual-boot computer of 98SE and XP Pro. on two different hard
drives, which 3rd party program do you suggest or is it best to leave
it up to Microsoft's own utilities. Thanks in advance for your help
and I appologize if I am taking away from the original poster's topic
but you seem to have some good advice and know what you are
talking about. :


I already weighed in on OP's duplicate post over in windowsxp.general, and
most of it was consistent with what Lil' Dave has posted here, so I won't
repeat myself here.

If you want to do multibooting right, you don't want to let XP's bootloader
handle the multibooting chores. See my webpage at
www.goodells.net/multiboot for a detailed explanation of the limitations of
the XP bootloader. For boot managers, I like XOSL (free,
www.ranish.com/part/xosl.htm), or the 3-in-1 BootIt-NG (shareware,
www.bootitng.com) if you can also use a partitioner and imager. OSLoader
and Symantec/PowerQuest's BootMagic are too limited, and IMHO, V-Com's
System Commander is more $$ than necessary. GAG (free, sourceforge.net)
also looks good, but I haven't tried it.

Contrary to what Dave says, I boot MS OS's -- lots of them -- from the
extended partition. It's only the standard MS MBR that doesn't bother
looking for OS's in the extended partition, but XOSL and BootIt-NG have no
trouble booting OS's from there. Since the OP has so many disks, though,
setting up such a system is probably more than he needs to get involved
with.

And there's one caveat to Dave's advice to let the XP CD do the XP partition
and format. If there is no partition for XP yet and there are other
pre-existing partitions on the disk -- *any* partitions, including other
OS's installed earlier and now "hidden" -- the XP install will not create a
new partition that sees itself as the 'C:' partition. Instead, I prefer to
create/format the XP partition with PartitionMagic or BootIt-NG and make it
the active partition before booting the XP installation CD. That way, the
XP partition will already exist when the XP CD boots, and XP can be
installed as 'C:'.

(snip)

Hi Dan,

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I took a little
vacation this weekend.
I also replied to you on the other newsgroup.

I just want to say a BIG thank you for all the info you gave me.
I saved several pages on your website for future study & reference.

I've got everything up and running. I ended up trying the xp
loader, osl2000, and bootit. I finally decided to go with bootit.
I've got both os's running now on the same hard drive, with different
partitions, and everything seems to be running well.

Thanks again for the goldmine of info & links you provided, but
most of all thank you for the time you gave me. It really helped!!

abc